Sunday, April 17, 2005

Getting back into DVD watching. This weekend:

Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind--An early Miyazaki recently released on DVD. Similar to Princess Mononoke, at least as far as I can remember (warrior princess defends ecosystem against an invading early-industrial society). The synth soundtrack is a little dated, but otherwise it's a typically high-quality Studio Ghibli product.

Time of the Wolf--This second pairing of director Michael Haneke and actress Isabelle Huppert didn't make quite the impact on me that The Piano Teacher did, but it was still strangely engrossing--maybe because I kept hoping we'd find out the nature of the event which has apparently destroyed European civilization (a hope which was ultimately futile). It's a convincingly grim look at the state of nature, although not quite full-blown Hobbesian because some of the characters manage to maintain relationships that are grounded on something beside mutual self-interest. The movie made me grateful for property laws and police forces--I would have been eaten alive in that situation.